25 Movies About Money You Definitely Need To See

When thinking about money and cinema, it's easy to imagine worlds of financial collapse, widespread greed, and endless corruption. While that is certainly the case for a number of great films about money, there are plenty of different and surprising approaches to the topic. One of those comes from the brilliant Preston Sturgess, in the delightful comedy "Christmas in July."

In the charming movie, the working-class Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell) is down on his luck, but that's all about to change, as he's just found out he's the winner of a slogan contest, and the $25,000 (an eye-watering amount of money in 1940) promises him incredible wealth. There's only one problem – MacDonald didn't actually win anything and is just being pranked by his co-workers. As great comedies often do, things get wildly out of hand, and before any pranksters can reveal the truth, things escalate beyond anyone's wildest imagination.

Running at an impressively brisk 67 minutes, "Christmas in July" is a breezy comedy of errors about the power and influence money has over people, as well as its potentially life-changing properties. If you're looking for a film about money that's a lot funnier and charming than it is bleak, look no further than "Christmas in July."

Have you ever wondered where your money goes after you spend it? It may not be something you've ever considered, but French master Robert Bresson examines the idea as part of his great 1983 film "L'argent." The film follows a counterfeit 500-Franc note as it makes its way from person to person before it winds up with a man who has no idea the note is fake, which lands him in troubles he never could have imagined. The film is a powerful expose of the way money can destroy lives.

Like all of Bresson's exemplary work, the film uses sound and action sparingly to maximize the emotional effect. "L'argent" has earned rave reviews, with Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader saying "Bresson, working his soundtrack as assiduously as his visuals, once again make us realize how little use most films make of the resources of cinema. A masterpiece." Indeed, what "L'argent" may lack in style, it more than makes up for with substance.

"This is how I win."

Featuring a stunning turn from the king of comedy Adam Sandler, "Uncut Gems" is a wildly entertaining, pulse-pounding thrill ride that doesn't relent for a second. Sandler stars as Howard, a jewelry dealer in New York City who has a stifling gambling addiction. As a result, he's in significant debt to seemingly everyone in the city, but his relentless thirst for hitting the big score finds him making a massive high-stakes bet that would not only lift himself and his family out of debt but, perhaps more importantly to Howard, achieve an enormous victory and finally get that high he so aggressively chases.

With a pulsating score from Daniel Lopatin and tension-racketing direction from Josh and Benny Safdie, "Uncut Gems" is a white-knuckle ride that won't let your heart rest for 135 minutes. It offers thrills that few other films can, thanks to a livewire performance from Sandler, playing a pretty despicable guy that you can't help but root for. The movie is a crushing statement on the parasitic influence of money, and how the promise for more and more wealth becomes increasingly addictive. It's a film that certainly isn't for the faint of heart, nor is it for those with sensitive ears – "Uncut Gems" has over 600 instances of profane language.

There's simply no stopping Martin Scorsese. While some may know him as the guy who doesn't like Marvel movies, they'd be remiss to forget that Scorsese is one of the most important figures in cinemas past and present, and is a relentless campaigner for film preservation all around the world. He's also a master filmmaker and a fourteen-time Oscar nominee. Despite his age, Scorsese continues to surprise, directing hit after hit, and bringing a feverish, childlike enthusiasm and energy behind the camera that results in some of the best films ever made.

One of his finest achievements is 2013's "The Wolf of Wall Street," a three-hour epic that feels half as long. It's based on the insane true story of the rise and fall of Jordan Belfort (a brilliant turn from Leonardo DiCaprio), a stock-broker who succumbs to relentless greed and finds himself embroiled in a massive scandal involving the FBI. "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a wild, unrelenting journey filled with drugs, sex, and a non-stop flurry of foul language, but above all, it's a total blast. The outstanding cast includes DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jon Bernthal, and Kyle Chandler, who all seem to be having the time of their lives working with Scorsese. Few films feel as alive as this one, which while being super entertaining, doesn't shy away from the ugly side of wealth.

"Hustlers," directed by Lorene Scafaria, features a character you'll never forget: the illustrious Ramona, played in a career-best performance by Jennifer Lopez. Ramona is by a considerable distance the most popular stripper at the club she works with, dancing with tantalizing ease that makes big spenders fork out the big bucks. The film is set in 2008, and when the economic collapse hits, Ramona and her colleagues find that their wealthy clientele aren't opening up their wallets as they used to, which leads to her and her friends concocting an epic scheme to regain financial control.

A passionate and often empowering film, "Hustlers" takes a complicated and thought-out heist usually reserved for a bank robbery and places it in a strip club, leading to fascinating results. The film was hugely popular with audiences, earning an impressive $157 million at the box office, and also received critical acclaim. As critic Douglas Greenwood observed for NME, the movie is "practically perfect," and that "its brilliance is indebted to many things, not least her satisfying, pin-sharp framing of this wild story." To top it all off, the film features an outstanding ensemble cast, including Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Lili Reinhardt, Keke Palmer, and music superstars Cardi B, and Lizzo.

"Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?" Those are the immortal words of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) in the resplendent delights of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," directed by master filmmaker Howard Hawks. The glorious technicolor musical follows showgirls Lorelei and Dorothy (Jane Russell), best friends who are about to travel together before Lorelei is to be married. Her fiancee, Gus (Tommy Noonan), is exorbitantly wealthy, and can't wait to marry his darling, but his father is concerned that Lorelei is just in it for their family wealth. In order to test Lorelei, Gus' father enlists private investigator Ernie (Elliot Reid) to track her on her adventures, in hopes that he'll find evidence to prevent her from marrying his son.

Few movies sparkle with as much joy and clever wit as "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." Marilyn Monroe showcases why she was one of the biggest names in Hollywood with an awesome performance, and Jane Russell is every bit as impressive in a far more restrained role. There are plenty of cleverly staged musical numbers as well, and the film has definitely left its mark on cinema history. The movie has a lot of fun with the ideas of money and wealth, and it cooly investigates what it means to actually marry for money. After all, as Lorelei cheekily sings, "diamonds are a girl's best friend."

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good," laments Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). It's a microcosm for the entire idea of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street," about the dangers and nastiness of relentless greed. Douglas won an Oscar for portraying Gekko, a corporate raider, and he's deliciously villainous. Bud (Charlie Sheen) gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he gets a chance to work with Gekko. Unfortunately for Bud, he soon discovers how exactly Gekko has become such a success on Wall Street and sets out to take the man who once was his hero.

Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" was a great success, and has become a big part of popular culture. In the 2000 film "Boiler Room," the characters, who are also stockbrokers, see Gordon Gekko as a role model, and they even get together to quote his dialogue. The film was popular with critics, and David Denby of New York Magazine called it "a sensationally entertaining melodrama about greed and corruption...a movie that evokes the power of big money so strongly that you can savor it on your tongue.

"Catch Me If You Can," a giddy and thrilling romp directed by Steven Spielberg, focuses on the ultimate con man and an FBI agent's immense journey to try and take him down. Based on an outrageous (probably) true story, the film follows Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio), a man who over his young life has truly mastered the world of scams and deception. Starting with small schemes, Abagnale's insatiable thirst to pull off bigger and bigger schemes soon finds himself attracting the attention of the FBI, especially agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), who is desperate to catch him. It's not long before Abagnale becomes one of the FBI's most wanted targets, launching a fascinating and fun journey with a love of big cash pay-offs at the heart of it.

There's nothing off-limits for Abagnale, who impersonates doctors, pilots, lawyers, and more on his quest for more and more cash. The film was a big commercial success and also received considerable critical acclaim. If you want a movie about money that isn't too heavy and isn't too light, "Catch Me If You Can" offers the perfect compromise, offering a whole lot of fun, but it doesn't hesitate to expose to the downside of greed, either.

It was a pretty big surprise when filmmaker Adam McKay – who directed comedies like "Step Brothers," "The Other Guys," and "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" – took a sharp turn with his next film, "The Big Short." While the film has some funny moments, it's a surprisingly stark political drama about the financial collapse in 2008. The film cleverly traces how the economic downfall began and doesn't shy away from complicated terminology. In order to explain complex subject matter, it cleverly relied on cameos of actors explaining things – most notoriously, using Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to explain mortgage bonds. The film featured an A-list ensemble cast including Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, and Christian Bale, and offers a searing critique of those at the highest levels of wealth and how they swindled the rest of the nation to lead to a global economic disaster.

The film was a big hit, and McKay won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside his co-writer Charles Randolph. The film is a great opportunity to be entertained and learn all about complex economic structures at the same time, and there aren't many films that offer that enticing opportunity.

A crazy race for a whole lot of money lies at the core of Stanley Kramer's "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World," a madcap adventure all about the extents people will go to to get rich quick. When a story of $350,000 buried in a California state park spreads like wildfire, an enormous group of people makes their way to the park in order to get the life-changing sum of money. It's an extremely long movie at over three hours, has dozens of characters and countless nutty setpieces, which all come together beautifully to create a portrait of delightful insanity.

The Oscar-winning film features a dazzling ensemble cast including movie legends Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Edie Adams, Sid Caesar, and some brilliant cameos from Buster Keaton, Sterling Holloway, and The Three Stooges. It's genuinely thrilling to see the movie, which was released in the early 1960s, as it feels refreshingly modern, and its long sequences of unbridled chaos are a joy to behold.

It's not often an actor can enter a film for a single scene and completely shift the mood, but that's exactly what Alec Baldwin does in his brilliant supporting turn in "Glengarry Glen Ross." As Blake, Baldwin storms into Premiere Properties, the real estate agency where our characters work, in an effort to motivate them, the motivation quickly turns into a verbal lashing. Blake makes the stakes clear – only the two best salesmen will get the lucrative leads, and the rest of the team will lose their jobs. He leaves them shaken, and the words that fuel their desperation are "Always be closing."

Despite being a box office disappointment, the film is warmly remembered for its terrific performances from Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, and Ed Harris, its intelligent screenplay, and its powerful portrayal of the high-pressure world of sales looking at both the delirious highs and the crushing lows. Pacino is particular is thrilling to watch, and he earned a Supporting Actor nomination for the film (Pacino won the same year in the Lead Actor category for "Scent of A Woman"). As the agency's top salesman, he delivers a dynamic performance full of cockiness, anger, and manipulation, as he'll do anything to stay on top.

A fascinating angle for a film set during the Second World War, "The Counterfeiters" is a thrilling movie about an enormous counterfeit operation. During the war, the German's reserves were dwindling, and the country took desperate measures to avoid complete bankruptcy. Enter Solomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a Jewish man who was imprisoned for forgery. In order to make the operation successful, German officers enlisted Sorowitsch to work on Operation Bernhard, a real-life operation that involved Nazi Germany forging British money to ensure their continuing atrocities. Sorowitsch found himself with an extraordinary moral quandary, working to help the very enemies who wanted his people annihilated to forge currency in order to escape the concentration camps and save his own life.

Exploring the world of counterfeit money combined with an incredible moral dilemma, Stefan Ruzowitzky's "The Counterfeiters" casts a hypnotic spell on audiences. It's a genuinely enthralling movie with great performances takes the idea of money and does really interesting things with it. The film was a big success, winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and garnered critical acclaim as well. Critic Jim Schembri for The Age called "The Counterfeiters" "the most unnerving, disturbing, true-life account yet of endurance under Nazi oppression." Above all, the film is a stunning tribute to the incredible perseverance of the human spirit.

Few make gangster movies like Martin Scorsese – actually, it's probably fair to say that nobody makes gangster flicks like the cinematic maestro himself. Gangsters go hand in hand with money, which is probably why many of the director's great films center around cold hard cash, like "The Wolf of Wall Street," which is on this very list, and "Goodfellas," "Mean Streets," and "The Color of Money." Another excellent Scorsese film about money is "Casino," his 1995 epic starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone, in a film about gangsters, as well as the inner workings of Las Vegas casinos.

The film's narration (provided by multiple characters) provides a look into this immense and labyrinthine world, where gambling expert Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro) receives a life-changing chance from the mob to oversee operations at Vegas' Tangiers Casino. He falls head-over-heels in love with Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a woman who hustles for a living, and has no genuine interest in him, but accepts the marriage out of convenience. Unfortunately for Ace, he's completely convinced that marrying Ginger will bring them both happiness, as he has all the money in the world to protect her, and provide her with anything she could ever need or want. "Casino" looks phenomenal with the endless lights of the casino and the city of Las Vegas, and it has a strong and effective message that unlimited wealth is, in fact, not the key to happiness.